To the editor:
Re: "Metro Van mayors seek funding magic for transit," July 3.
Poor old TransLink. Every idea it comes up with for funding has hooks and barbs so painful that no one wants to touch it.
The various levels of government have taxed us on the essentials so heavily that there's no more room to jack up the price of electricity, gas, property taxes, ferry fares, user fees, liquor taxes, to name most, so they're at their wit's end.
They could increase the sales tax but that would hurt the poor people even more. Any business taxes they propose are met with howls of protest or are easily dodged.
Not once in all of this debate has anyone mentioned the possibility of a cellphone or "telecommunications" tax. There's obviously room for increasing the price of texting and cell phone usage judging from their ubiquitous presence and, for most people, they wouldn't even notice a modest increase.
Just imagine the joy you would feel if they could implement such a tax, riding on public transit knowing that the moron bellowing away on his cellphone or the ditz texting aimlessly away is subsidizing your ride and paying for future expansion. It would be the first tax ever to get majority support from all political parties. William Corden, Vancouver
